Given Android’s development, LiMo’s continued releases (and existing broad user-base) and Nokia’s takeover of Trolltech, Linux-based platforms look to be standing ground against Symbian, Windows Mobile and other mobile software.  Analysts ABI Research have today released a report suggesting that almost 20-percent of mid to high-end mobile devices will be Linux-based by 2013.  According to their research, the Linux distro’s cost advantage and the broad application range supplied as standard are both key aspects of the growth.

“Clever choice of public license support, along with software engineering that isolates proprietary items from open source items, allows operating system vendors to generate revenue from a very cost-effective OS solution.  Linux OS solutions will be far more cost-effective than incumbent solutions, even when silicon requirements are taken into account, given that a fuller application layer will be included in the standard package and that the burden of customization falls mostly on the independent software vendor”  Stuart Carlaw, VP, ABI Research

Linux, they believe, will be the underlying software in a broad expansion of new devices intended to make the internet mobile.  This will include entirely web-based software as well as apps which have both offline and online components.  Analysts in general have suggested that such applications and usage scenarios will increase dramatically as mobile data access becomes faster and more affordable, as happened with the availability of fixed broadband.

While not a technical analysis of Linux as the foundation of a mobile platform, the report does look at its strengths and the barriers to the established smartphone market.  Frankly, 20-percent seems a pretty safe estimate.  Already several phones that have been on sale for some time are Linux-based, the difference is that they’re not directly identified to customers in that way.  In the end, most users won’t particularly care which OS their device is running; they’ll only be interested in what it’s capable of doing - and frustrated when it goes wrong.  Linux’s key strength there may be the low cost of development for handset manufacturers, enabling them to bring higher-specified devices to a lower price point.